The Marvel and DC universes are constantly on the move, and with all manner of superheroes constantly seeing upgrades to their powers and abilities, it's a given that the same goes for their villainous counterparts.
The difference is that villains tend to be on the receiving end of upgrades all the time. Each and every time they return, having presumably suffered a good licking on the previous encounter, villains have to come up with new and inventive ways to put those pesky do-gooders in their place. Whether that's through the fashioning of some new piece of technology, or something much more drastic, superhuman conflict is basically an arms race.
Compiled here are the best and most ridiculous occasions where DC and Marvel's antagonists upped their game to a ludicrous degree. Some figures have seen multiple iterations, while others have only recently innovated on their initial abilities.
It can be pot-luck sometimes, with writers less keen to mess with the established formula, but when it comes off properly, they manage to redefine some of the medium's most infamous figures...
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
